The judgment by the Supreme Court on the issue of a second Scottish independence referendum was emphatic: on the question of whether the bill proposed by the Scottish Parliament to hold a second referendum next October was lawful, the court unanimously declared that it was not. So resolute was its decision, that the judgment was brought forward by three weeks.

So where does this leave the matter of Scottish independence? 

It clearly isn’t the end of the matter and, barring a sea change in the complexion of Scottish political discourse, the issue of the Union between Scotland and England will rumble on.

The immediate question for Nicola Sturgeon is: what does she do next?

One option might be to go to the European Court of Human Rights. This would be a tricky case for the Scottish Government to bring but it could put its weight behind an individual who wanted to take the Westminster Government on and suggest that the decision to refuse a second referendum is a breach of their human rights.

The problem with this course of action is that the ‘right to self-determination’ isn’t enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights and so any challenge to the ECHR would have to come under Article 9 (freedom of thought and conscience) or Article 10 (freedom of expression) – and it is difficult to imagine the ECHR making a judgment that could possibly lead to the break-up of an established state based upon an individual’s right to think or express themselves.

Another option would be to simply go ahead with the referendum. A similar course of action was pursued by the Government of Catalonia in 2017, which led to the Spanish federal police breaking up the referendum and the Catalan Prime Minister in jail.

Want to see more SNP fails? – Health Matters

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